Abbey Road is on course to knock Liam Gallagher's Why Me? Why Not off the number one slot when the charts are announced on Friday.

The Beatles' Abbey Road looks set to return to the top of the UK charts - 50 years after it was first released.

After emerging from the final recording sessions in which all of the band took part before they split, the famous album spent 17 weeks at number one - 11 of them consecutive - after its release in 1969.

Image:The Beatles famously played their last public gig on a rooftop in London in 1969

The album cover showing all four Beatles-John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Sir Paul McCartney and George Harrison - striding in line over the zebra crossing outside the northwest London studios is one of the most widely recognised in music history.

It is now set to return to the top later this week thanks to the release of a 50th anniversary edition which includes previously unheard material, with more than 12,000 chart sales over current number one, Liam Gallagher's Why Me? Why Not.

If it stays in position, it will be the band's first number one album since the 2000 compilation, 1.

As things currently stand, Gallagher will be knocked down to number two, while Lewis Capaldi's former number one Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent climbs back to number three, according to the Official Charts Company.

South London collective D-Block Europe are on course for this week's highest new entry with their new mixtape PTSD, starting at number four.